Representing Italy and the Islamic World: Culture, Self, and Society in the Works of Magdi Cristiano Allam

Author: Burdett, Charles

Source: Italian Studies, Volume 65, Number 3, November 2010 , pp. 398-414(17)

Publisher: Maney Publishing

Included in the following Connect Compilations:

2010, Cultural Studies

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Abstract:

Referring to a number of studies that have addressed the issue, the article begins by looking at a broad spectrum of representations of Islam and the Islamic world in contemporary Italian culture. The main focus of the essay, however, is on the work of the journalist and writer, Magdi Cristiano Allam, who has been a commentator on the Islamic world since the late 1970s and whose books on the subject attain high figures of circulation. The essay concentrates on the centrality of autobiographical reflection in his work, and on his observations on the role that religion and culture play in shaping individual and collective identity. Through an analysis of the way in which the authorial self is presented principally in the three texts, Vincere la paura (2005), Io amo l'Italia (2006) and Grazie Gesù (2008), the article explores how the definitions of personal identity that are contained within his books serve an integral part in his evocation of the Islamic world, and how that evocation does not remain static but evolves, often dramatically, from one text to another.

Keywords: ISLAM; AUTOBIOGRAPHY; CULTURE; IDENTITY; SOCIETY

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/016146210X12593180344496

Affiliations: University of Bristol

Publication date: 2010-11-01

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